"The Dream"
Notes
Transcript
Intro:
Someone has said that “Daniel contains the ABC’s of Bible Prophecy and Revelation contains the XYZ’s”… Dr. David Jeremiah says “anyone who wants to understand what the Bible teaches about the future, must understand this chapter (Daniel chapter 2).”
As we get into the study of N’s dream this morning, I want to start out by saying a few things… I touched on this in a previous message, when the N presented the “Dream Challenge”…
Research has concluded that dreams may be caused for a variety of reasons.
You may dream because of poor blood circulation
because of improper ventilation
because you are in an uncomfortable sleeping position
What you dream can be affected by the food you eat
It can also be affected by what you think about, watch, or read just before going to sleep.
However, dreams today are NOT new revelations from God. It is through prayer and the studying of God’s Word that we are guided, by the Holy Spirit, to God’s perfect plan for our lives.
Back in Daniel’s day, they did not have the complete written word of God and so yes, at times, God did use dreams in order to reveal His will to different people. We are going to look at one of those dreams today…
Turn in your Bible to Daniel 2… as we look at…
“The Dream”
“The Dream”
(Read vv. 31-45)
Meat:
Daniel starts out by describing N’s dream in exact detail… and then he gives the interpretation of the dream. I believe that he does it in this order, because that was the challenge that N had presented to his wise men… “first tell me the dream and then give me the interpretation”… and so that is exactly what Daniel does.
What I want to look at first this morning is…
1. What The Dream Reveals
1. What The Dream Reveals
Just like I mentioned last week, it is easy for us to want to skip ahead and get into the juicy part of the meat, but you cannot forget that the potatoes and gravy are also part of the meal.
When we have a good understanding of what the dream reveals, then we can better understand the interpretation of the dream as well…
A little disclaimer: Most of my images today, I took from a website called “freebibleimages.org” and they were created by a fella named Jeremy Park.
The very first thing that N’s dream reveals is…
1.1 A Statue
1.1 A Statue
The statue represents the history of the world empires.
Here in Chapter 2 and later on down the road when we get to Chapter 7, we are going to be looking at the entire course of the Gentile World power from the time they were taken captive, in 605BC, all the way through to the time when Christ sets up His eternal Kingdom.
As Daniel spoke these words over 2600 years ago, they were prophetic words… the events that he spoke of hadn’t happened yet… however, as we read them today, most of them are historic words because a lot of what Daniel spoke about has now taken place within the past 2600 years... But there are still some events, that he prophesied about (2600 years ago) that haven’t happened yet… We will talk about that later…
For now, lets talk about this statue…
This image or statue is described in terms of the human body…
The Statue
The Statue
I want you to notice that as Daniel describes this statue from head to toe, the metals deteriorate in value.
Head of Gold
Breast plate and arms of Silver
Belly and Thighs of Bronze
Legs of Iron
Feet of Iron mixed with Clay
We will look at some of the symbolism within this deterioration in a few minutes.
N’s Dream also reveals…
1.2 A Stone
1.2 A Stone
v. 34 tells us about this stone…
The Stone
The Stone
It is cut out without hands - This description implies divine intervention… The statue could also be seen as an Idol, something that men would make with their hands and then worship this “man made” idol… However, this stone was not cut out or made by human hands… It is something that is made and cut out by God Himself.
Crushing
Crushing
This Stone struck the feet of the statue and caused it to crumble, to the point that there was not a trace of that statue… v.35 says that it “became like chaff… and the wind carried it away...”
and then this Stone became “a great Mountain and filled the whole earth” - This has got to be one of the things that troubled N as he was having this dream night after night.
We are not told how big this stone was to begin with, however, once a stone is cut down to a certain size, it generally does not get any bigger. However, this stone that N saw in his dream, became a mountain that filled the whole earth… again implying Divine Intervention.
The third thing that that this dream reveals is…
1.3 Daniel’s Faith
1.3 Daniel’s Faith
I think this is very easy to miss and skip over…
After he is finished telling N his dream, Daniel says (v.36) “This is the Dream...”… He doesn’t ask “Am I right?”, he doesn’t wait for N to confirm or deny… He just shares what God revealed to him and has faith that it is exactly what N had dreamt.
He continues to act on that faith as he says (v.36) “Now we will tell the interpretation of it before the king”… Daniel has faith that the dream is correct and that the interpretation, that he is about to give, is accurate as well.
It is worth noting that Daniel said “Now we will tell the interpretation of it before the king”… again, making sure that the spot light is not on him… in accordance with the prayers of his friends and in accordance with the power of God to answer prayers… Daniel would give an interpretation… he is making sure that everyone knows that it is not by his own knowledge or skill that he is able to do this.
I also want you to notice that this dream reveals the…
1.4 God of Heaven
1.4 God of Heaven
Daniel 2:37 “37 You, O king, are a king of kings...” Daniel doesn’t say he is THE king of kings… N is A king of kings… Meaning - He is the greatest king of his time… but he was not and is not the greatest King of ALL time.
Daniel goes on to Reveal God’s Sovereignty… Daniel 2:37-38 “... For the God of heaven has given you a kingdom, power, strength, and glory; 38 and wherever the children of men dwell, or the beasts of the field and the birds of the heaven, He has given them into your hand, and has made you ruler over them all—you are this head of gold.”
Now we are getting into the second part of our passage, which is…
2. The Interpretation of the Dream
2. The Interpretation of the Dream
Some commentators believe that when Daniel makes the statement to N “you are this head of gold”… that N gets a little puffed up and proud… However, I am going to speculate just for a minute…
Let me pull up this picture again…
Let me pull up this picture again…
In reading through the description of the dream that N had… I don’t really see anything that would be all that disturbing or terrifying…
There is a great image or statue, a rock that seems to be floating in mid air, that rock hits the feet of the statue, the statue falls, becomes dust, and the rock turns into a mountain that fills the earth…
A weird dream yes… terrifying to the point that you no longer want to sleep… not so much… and here is where the speculation comes in…
When Daniel uttered the phrase “you are the head of gold”, I wonder if that was the last detail that N needed to hear about his dream to really know that God has revealed this to Daniel… If the head head of gold in N’s dream looked exactly like him and night after night he was watching this rock pulverize his face to dust… I can see where that would make you not want to go back to sleep… again, I don’t know for sure if that is the way it happened or not, but there was something within this dream that made N tremble.
Daniel goes on with the interpretation and tells N that…
2.1 The Statue Represents World Powers
2.1 The Statue Represents World Powers
In talking about world history, Jesus observed there would be a long time of Gentile world powers that would have control over the nation of Israel.
24 And they will fall by the edge of the sword, and be led away captive into all nations. And Jerusalem will be trampled by Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.
The time of the Gentiles began with the Babylonian Kingdom taking the nation of Israel captive and will continue until Christ is reigning as King over Israel and the world.
There are 5 political (or World) powers described in Daniel’s interpretation of N’s dream.
2.2 Gold - Babylon
2.2 Gold - Babylon
We know this because of Daniel’s statement to N… “you are this head of Gold”.
Dr. David Jeremiah says…
Dr. David Jeremiah says…
“It is fitting that Babylon would be represented by Gold in N’s dream, for it was saturated with gold. When the Greek historian, Herodotus, described Babylon about one hundred years after N’s reign, he noted the extravagant amount of gold in the temple.”
Even the prophet Isaiah describes Babylon as “the golden city” (Isaiah 14:4)…
N was obsessed with gold… In the next chapter we are going to see old Nebuchadnezzar build a giant statue and guess what it is made of? All gold, no silver, bronze, or iron… just a bunch of gold…
Now here comes the bad news that, I am certain, N did not want to here…
Daniel 2:39Daniel 2:39 “39 But after you shall arise another kingdom inferior to yours… ”
The second kingdom was inferior to N’s. Babylon was represented by Gold and this second one is represented by silver…
The silver portion of the statue in N’s dream…
2.3 Silver - Medo - Persia
2.3 Silver - Medo - Persia
This power is not named specifically in this passage, however, it is identified in Daniel chapters 5, 8 and 11 as the mede’s and the Persians.
These two powers...
These two powers...
are symbolized by the two silver arms that are separated by the silver chest.
The Mede’s and the Persians joined together, came against Babylon and were the major world power from roughly 538BC - 333BC…
Daniel continues with his interpretation in v.39…
Daniel 2:39 “... then another, a third kingdom of bronze, which shall rule over all the earth.”
This is understood to be the power of Greece…
2.4 Bronze - Greece
2.4 Bronze - Greece
This represents the amazing kingdom established by Alexander the Great, who conquered the known world and then wept because there were no more kingdoms to conquer.
The Greek armies used bronze
The Greek armies used bronze
or brass, helmets and shields.... and they were in power from roughly 333bc until 64 or 63BC, when the Romans attacked Jerusalem and took over the temple… We will talk more about Greece later on in our study through this amazing book.
Moving on to the Iron and the Clay, which represents the Roman Empire
2.5 Iron & Clay - Roman Empire
2.5 Iron & Clay - Roman Empire
Only one verse is devoted to the other three kingdoms, but this kingdom receives much more attention.
Lets start with the legs…
Lets start with the legs…
The image has two legs, which some see as the division between the Eastern and Western parts of the Roman Empire. The Eastern part was centered in Constantinople (or modern Istanbul) and the western part of the Roman Empire remained centered in Rome.
The Roman Empire is represented by Iron because of its brute strength and use of force… The Roman legions were a thing to be feared. They were known to land their boats on the shores of a land and then burn their boats to indicate they were there to win in battle or die trying. This caused many lands to simply surrender before the battle began.
v.40 says “And the fourth kingdom shall be as strong as iron, inasmuch as iron breaks in pieces and shatters everything; and like iron that crushes, that kingdom will break in pieces and crush all the others.”
The Romans were also great builders. They constructed a highway and an aqueduct system that defies description. They built 52,000 miles of road, most of them paved. To give you a point of reference, there are only around 46,000 miles of interstate highways in America today. 2,000 years later, some of these Roman roads are still in use… and are probably in better shape than most of the roads in Michigan.
It is hard to date the end of the Roman Empire, because unlike these other kingdoms, no other world kingdom ever took its place. It crumbled from within. That’s why we see the unusual feet of the image in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream.
The feet were iron and clay, which means there was a mixture of the Roman Empire with other, weaker kingdoms.
The feet were iron and clay, which means there was a mixture of the Roman Empire with other, weaker kingdoms.
Most scholars agree that the feet represent some form of a revived Roman Empire with the ten toes symbolizing, what the book of Revelation describes as, a 10-nation federation that will come to power under the Antichrist during the seven year tribulation after Jesus comes to call His Bride home at the Rapture. It will be a federation of nations resembling the old Roman Empire.
This part of the prophecy has not yet been fulfilled…
Dr. S Lewis Johnson said that “in the final days there will be a major movement to unite the main nations of the world.”… hmmm… nations uniting… if we could get the main nations united under one name… I wonder what we would call it… … How about .... “The United Nations”… sounds like a good name to me…
Daniel says in v.42 “And as the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly fragile.”
The fact that the feet are made up of Iron and clay speaks to the fact that there would be such a diversity within the ten kingdoms that, while there would be the element of great power, there would also be an element of weakness. These ten kingdoms, as hard as they might try, will never be able to be fully joined together and work together in harmony.
And then there’s the Rock… Which is…
2.6 The Rock - Jesus’ Kingdom
2.6 The Rock - Jesus’ Kingdom
Daniel 2:44 “And in the days of these kings (the ten kings of the revived Roman Empire) the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people; it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever.”
The Stone represents
The Stone represents
The Kingdom that Christ will establish on earth… However, Jesus’ Kingdom will not be like the rest…
In fact His Kingdom will crush the rest…Until there is nothing left of them… and Jesus’ Kingdom will last forever!
To Isreal - Jesus is a stumbling block
To The Church - Jesus is the Cornerstone or the Foundation Rock
To the Nations - Jesus is the crushing stone
Closing:
Daniel knew who the Rock represented and I am certain that he had the same attitude that David had in...
Psalm 18:2 “The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer; My God, my strength, in whom I will trust; My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.”
As Daniel finishes with the interpretation of the dream, we cannot help but notice his faith on display once again as he says at the end of v.45 “… The dream is certain, and its interpretation is sure.”
Upon hearing all of this, N responds in a way that is contrary to the actions of any King…
Daniel 2:46 “Then King Nebuchadnezzar fell on his face, prostrate before Daniel, and commanded that they should present an offering and incense to him.”
Typically Kings do not ow before anyone, especially if the king was as mighty and powerful as N was. But here he is, bowing before this young Jewish kid and commands that he is given different expensive gifts.
And it would seem that for a moment, N had a greater respect for the God of Heaven as he said in v.47 “The king answered Daniel, and said, “Truly your God is the God of gods, the Lord of kings, and a revealer of secrets, since you could reveal this secret.””
Why would N give praise to God?… Because throughout this whole ordeal, Daniel has made sure that spotlight was on God and not on himself.
N gave Daniel a promotion… but remember, Daniel’s character is that of humbleness and he cared for others more than himself… and so he spoke up for his friends as well…
Daniel 2:48-49 “48 Then the king promoted Daniel and gave him many great gifts; and he made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon, and chief administrator over all the wise men of Babylon. 49 Also Daniel petitioned the king, and he set Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego over the affairs of the province of Babylon; but Daniel sat in the gate of the king.”
Don’t miss what is going on here…
There are now 4 Jewish young men, that are faithful to the One True God, controlling the Babylonian Government… a Government that was, at the time, controlling the World…
How could this happen??? .... … The Sovereignty of God...
In giving this dream and enabling Daniel to know and explain it, God displayed, Sovereignty through His wisdom and His power. God has the wisdom to plan the ages and the power to execute His plan.
“The Lord is my rock... my fortress and my deliverer; My God, my strength, in whom I will trust; My shield and the horn of my salvation, (He is) my stronghold.”
Is He yours as well?… … I pray that He is!
Prayer: